For those of you who haven’t heard Adam, Joe or I talk about the Fish Compound later being shortened to just the Compound, it’s a privately Ray Scott designed bass lake. An average day on the Compound is 30-40 Bass per angler.
Joe, Adam, Sam and I all got to the lake around 8:30; there were no clouds in the sky and absolutely no wind. I looked over to Sam and said; man it’s going to be a good day.
After getting the kayaks unloaded Joe and Adam immediately started fishing off the dock. A typical day we’ll all pick up 4 or 5 fish before we even get the kayaks into the water… Not today, I saw Adam and Joe not having any luck from the dock so I got straight into the Diablo and started fishing.
Joe and Adam were both throwing lipless crakbaits from the dock so I started with a Strike King Swim jig. No one had a bottom machine so we didn’t know the exact water temperature, but it was freakin and the clouds stated to roll in. After working the swim jig for about 15 min’s with no hits, I switched to a wacky rigged YUM Dinger, nothing…
At this point everyone had been on the water for almost a half hour without a bite and the wind started to pick up. I threw several other lures without success, and finally switched to a purple Zoom magnum trick worm on a weedless shaky head.
I’d cast the trick worm into areas of deep cover about 10-15 ft. without luck. One of my casts I left still for about 2 min’s while I went through my crate to see what else I could tie on. I didn’t even know I had a bass until I started to reel the bait in, no hit no run it’s like he just sucked it up and didn’t move.
The fish wasn’t huge only 14in but that didn’t matter; I broke the ice and knew no matter what else I evaded the skunk.
Realizing how slow I needed to work that bait was painful. Cast out and let it sit for almost a minute before I even give the bait a little shake. The tactic paid off with a second bass; about the same size 5 min’s later.
Adam quickly switched over to a shaky head and I handed him a few of the purple Zoom magnum trick worms. A few min’s later Adam broke the skunk as well catching his bass with a painfully slow presentation.
Biggest fish of the day was 20 inches, which was a ton of fun on my light whippy crappie rod.
It wasn’t an epic day by any means between 4 of us we managed 6 fish, but I learned a few things. There is no such thing as too slow of a presentation when the water temperature is down, and read Paddletruckers articles. I sure am glad I ran out and bought several packs of Zoom magnum trick worms few days after reading his “Loosing Count While Kayak Fishing” article; every fish was caught on one.
I hope the above fishing report made sense, I'm on my third cup of TheraFlu, and feeling a little foggy...
About the Author: Mark "YakSushi" Watanabe is the Co. Founder of YakAngler.com and the Founder of YakSushi Media. He considers himself a mediocre fisherman and an unexceptional writer. He's the devoted father of two little "Sushi's" and everyday tech ninja.
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